How to save three million litres of water..?

Last Friday I toured the BBC's rainwater harvesting system at our Media Village complex in west London. I have always enjoyed the opportunity to spend time looking behind the scenes and speaking with some of our 2,000+ suppy chain.

This visit was really interesting on two counts. Firstly it's great to see something that helps our efforts to operate the BBC estate in a more sustainable manner. Secondly I met somebody who has supported the BBC for 40 years.

The rainwater harvesting system was built at the same time as the Media Centre and Broadcast Centre and helped the buildings achieve a BREEAM excellent rating - the leading environmental assessment method for buildings. The system collects water from the roofs of the buildings and pipes it to a huge 220,000 litre underground tank. The water is then treated and used within the buildings in place of mains water for tasks such as flushing the toilets. BBC Workplace estimates this will save three million litres of fresh water each year. That's a lot of flushes!

I was accompanied on my tour by Paul Cousins who has worked man and boy providing maintenance services to the BBC - he recounted to me his views of how the BBC has changed over the years. During this period the one thing to his mind that was constant is that the BBC never sits still, it's always on the move. It's interesting to see that this is very much the case at the moment.